Boss Kelly House and Row

Overview

Please note: This issue description is out-of-date as of 2015. We are currently working to update our information on this issue.

The Boss Kelly House at 1106 West Saratoga Street is part of a row of houses that were built between 1830 and 1845. The building takes its name after “Boss” John S. (Frank) Kelly, the leader of the West Baltimore Democratic Club who controlled all things political in West Baltimore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Baltimore Department of Housing is in the process of acquiring 1106, as well as the rest of the row and hundreds of other properties in the Poppleton neighborhood, to turn over to the private development firm of La Cite. La Cite’s current plans are to retain the Boss Kelly House and demolish all the other buildings in the row to build new housing.

Location

1106 W. Saratoga Street, Baltimore, MD 21223

History

John Kelly moved into the house in the 1860s and lived here for the rest of his life. Kelly ran the political machine of West Baltimore that elected several mayors, senators, judges, and state representatives. He was also the inspiration of Dashiell Hammett’s character Shad O’Rory in the novel (and later movie) The Glass Key.

Architecturally, the building is a prime example of the cumulative development of row house design in Baltimore, and is featured in the 1981 book, Those Old Placid Rows, by Natalie Shivers. The house and the others in the row are unusual, possibly unique in Baltimore, for their single second-story tripartite windows and gabled roofs. This row has been attributed to the work of architect Robert Cary Long, Jr., whose father designed a similar row in the unit block of Mulberry Street in Mt. Vernon.